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Endpoints is now at home with the @FT. It's been 7 years since @JohnCendpts and I bootstrapped the company. Thank you to all of our earliest supporters. You made our dreams a reality.
.@FT has acquired a controlling stake in Endpoints News (@endpts), a leading source of news and analysis for the thriving biopharmaceutical industry.
Full announcement here: on.ft.com/3U62opE
i've decided to love my Duo. so what if it's a first gen device? this beautiful form factor is here to stay. i'll spend this iPhone cycle learning the possibilities that a foldable opens up.
sure, plenty to hate, all well documented. my kids love it though.
got the feels today after finding these cringey 20-year-old relics — the cover letter and resume that got me hired at @FierceBiotech.
"Though my past work experience has been atypical… I'm confident you'll find that to be a unique asset" 🥲
zero biopharma experience, no journalism background. just an intense desire to hustle my own way.
but i needed a real job and a steady paycheck. i was broke, getting married, and couldn't sustain myself on the tiny businesses i'd built… rec-league basketball in DC, third-rate oldies CDs sold on eBay.
flying planes is my passion but i couldn't afford to keep doing it, and i didn't want to be a commercial pilot.
i needed this job badly, and my good friend @ryanwillumson pushed me to apply. he was already at FierceMarkets selling ads to telecom and wireless companies. making good money.
around that time i heard @mcuban say something like "a sales job beats an MBA." i disliked school, so that resonated.
the founder of Fierce, @jeffgiesea, took a chance on me and put me on the biotech ad sales beat.
i met @JohnCendpts days into the job. corny to say, but i was awed by his aura and loved his writing. biotech was a topic i knew nothing about, but as a lifelong news junkie i was hooked on how John worked, and how he reported. building a business model around news was extremely fun!
soon i was working under @seangriffey, who gave me a wide lane to build a team. he also (patiently) taught me what real MBAs know, and shaped me like no professor or classroom ever could. i learned to run a clean P&L, keep good books, set expectations, measure outcomes. and, occasionally, to put my diva complex aside 😆
eventually Sean and Ryan left Fierce to start @industrydive, and John and i left to start @endpts — all of us taking risks without the security of a guaranteed paycheck.
i remember the kid who wrote this cover letter: cocky, talented, but missing something he wouldn't have until he met these people. i'll forever be indebted to them.
i'm amazed to be where i am today — very happy working at the best newspaper in the world, the @FT.
Arsalan Arif retweeted
There is another very important nuance in this debate.
One may know a drug's mechanism of action (what target it binds) and still not be 100% clear how the drug-target interaction manifest downstream clinical effects.
Examples:
- GLP-1s. We are dosing GLP-1R (a GPCR) at supra physiological concentrations that is completely unnatural. We know GLP-1s that minimize beta-arrestin recruitment gives you better weight loss, but we actually don't know "why"
- SGLT2i. We know it blocks SGLT2, but don't really know why it protects against heart failure. We can only speculate
Arsalan Arif retweeted
terry tao: imagine, if you will, a petrifying situation. you have produced a very effective drug, but you do not know how it works. do you trust the drug? now, this is just a hypothetical, but—
drug developers:
Arsalan Arif retweeted
Twitter is a great place to follow smart people. Clinical Pharmacologists are rare, let alone a former FDA reviewer.
Give @DrSMallikaarjun a follow!
Arsalan Arif retweeted
come to nyc in two weeks to see @g0ingmad , @Josh__Hardman and i moderate panels on psychedelics drug development
horizonsconference.org/thurs…
Just spent another week in Shanghai. If that doesn’t get an American anxious and eager to work nothing will.
Arsalan Arif retweeted
Yes, but explain to me again how pharma profiteers are the main cause of high gene therapy costs…? 🤷🏻♂️ endpoints.news/nonprofits-ge…
Arsalan Arif retweeted
I think people in drug development and biotech investors have been so traumatized by failures of cancer vaccines.
And that trauma has caused us to lose our child-like ability to dream. We are no longer able to dream what cancer vaccines might be able to achieve in the future.
If I allow myself to dream again: 10-15 years from now, cancer vaccines would not be used for stage II-IV, it would be used when mutations are detected - not even stage I. That would be amazing.
Arsalan Arif retweeted
This is a much longer topic for discussion. But there are 2 types of biotech entrepreneurs. Not saying which is good/bad.
Many biotech "entrepreneurs" are management team for hires. They don't really source their own ideas, don't truly make judgement calls on the assets/ideas. And in many ways, they don't really take risks - as they start day 1 with a good market-rate salary.
When they pitch a story, it was prepared for them by the VCs who found the asset. They are more akin to operating partners brought in by PE firms to run a company.
Then there are founder-entrepreneurs in the sense that they come up with their own ideas/deal-flow. And have to sell the story to both VCs and the team they recruit. Take no salary (or defer salary) until a big round. And even then, take a below-market salary. This is a different skill set and is truly risk taking.
On a risk adjusted NPV basis, the former is more positive. Many CFOs/CBOs get fabulously rich parachuting in 1-2 years before a clinical read-out. Even if it fails, their contract includes a generous 6-12 month severance. They then parachute to another VC NewCo - often before their severance runs out. Rinse and repeat.
The latter is a tough slog. When a guy like @Mykalt45 succeeds, even if the deal size is not as big, it really is a testament to grit.
There’s an emerging group of scrappy, operator, doers, with chips on our shoulders who eschew the $65M at $10M pre way of financing and building companies. Wanting to build where everyone wins. If you’re a capital partner that likes that approach…the CrossBridge Bio playbook, then please reach out. CrossBridge started with $1.2M through a SAFE. From $15K-$500K checks. Ended up being 17x for them. It can be done!
Arsalan Arif retweeted
There’s an emerging group of scrappy, operator, doers, with chips on our shoulders who eschew the $65M at $10M pre way of financing and building companies. Wanting to build where everyone wins. If you’re a capital partner that likes that approach…the CrossBridge Bio playbook, then please reach out. CrossBridge started with $1.2M through a SAFE. From $15K-$500K checks. Ended up being 17x for them. It can be done!
Boulevard Bio launches with $65M and its sights set on Vera's IgAN drug in immunology.
endpoints.news/boulevard-bio…
Arsalan Arif retweeted
Give a follow to @AlecTPhD for Claude Science news and updates! It was amazing to see him build this product, a complete Claude god.
much appreciated John
@endpts is one of the greatest stories in media over the last decade, but not enough people know about it
Love this from @arsalanarif and @JohnCendpts
Boostrapped a b2b media company and selling to the @FinancialTimes, what a story
endpoints.news/endpoints-new…
i've known John for 20 years now. we've been doing Endpoints for 10 of them —
endpoints.news/endpoints-new…
10 years ago, @endpts Endpoints News published its first news report endpoints.news/epizyme-excit…
Dream job alert: we're hiring for a engineering and product lead at Endpoints. The right talent will enjoy watching their impact explode quickly. Endpoints has the largest professional life sciences audience on the planet. And the @FT is the best newspaper on the planet.
You'll work with me, @JohnCendpts, @ArmstrongDrew, @tsrandall and all senior leaders directly. We're all experienced AI users from the top down. We'll expect you to deliver fast. Healthy token budget.
Highly qualified but no time to submit a formal application? DM me.
🧑💻We're hiring an engineering and product lead to help make some big changes to how our audience reads, interacts with, and finds us.
This is a cool job that will have a big impact and work closely with our news + biz leadership.
ats.rippling.com/endpointsne…